Icarus Laughed

"You bastard, you rotten bastard. . . I will make you pay for this.”Lucianda threatened in a provoked voice but Prince Hakeem only laughed outrageously as he glinted down at her exposed breasts. "You and who will do that?" He made a mocking sound. "My dear Lucianda, the only reason you escaped from my wrath was because my findings indicated you are a decent woman, but don't try to take advantage, you will pay dearly for it." He warned coldly and Lucianda shivered physically. Laughing devilishly at her fear, Prince Hakeem kept his eyes on her pouty breasts and just when Lucianda felt she would die from the embarrassment and the unwanted passion washing over her body, he gave an insulting snort as he got up from the bed, and before she could do anything, with a blank expression, he covered her body with a wrap. “Try to know your place.” He said before striding out of the room. Only then did Lucianda give way to tears. What was her offence? She was just a disillusioned widow trying to get over all that had happened in her life and here is another cruel soul, trying to create more problems for her. ***** Lucianda Castos, the widow of the late powerful Alex Castos, refused to mourn the death of her husband. All she wanted was to start the process of healing. Prince Hakeem, her husband's equally powerful but ten times deadlier rival, would not permit her to do that. He had another thing planned and Lucianda did not know what that meant for her. She hated her husband and everything that had to do with him. And she would avenge the pain they made her go through. She has only two missions; to protect her son and to hurt those who hurt her.

My daughter-in-law cheated on my son behind his back, and I caught her. When I confronted her, she turned the tables on me, accusing me instead. I told my son everything exactly as it happened, but she broke down crying and accused me of bullying her. "Ever since I married into the Simmons family, you've never been happy with me," she sobbed. "If I’d known you’d slander me like this, I would’ve been better off dead!" She attempted to hurt herself to prove her innocence, but my son stopped her. "Mom, how could you accuse my wife like that? You're my own mother, but this is too much!" he shouted. Furious, he moved out with her. Later, I fell gravely ill and begged my son to come see me one last time. When he finally arrived, he brought her with him. To my horror, they removed my oxygen tube. As I struggled to breathe, I heard her smug voice whisper in my ear: "Old hag, if it weren't for you accusing me of cheating, Herman and I wouldn’t have gotten your inheritance so quickly!" She laughed coldly. "Oh, and next time you accuse someone, make sure you have evidence. Did you really think your word alone could ruin me?" I died choking on my final breath. Afterward, they lived happily, spending my money without a care in the world. But then, I woke up. It was the day I caught her cheating again. This time, I went straight to work. I replaced the lubricant at home with industrial-strength glue. She wanted proof? Fine. I’d give her proof.

"I'm going to slice you open, take out your guts, and put them in a bowl if you don't release me now!" Briar KingBear yelled at her captors, rattling her chains. "All that fire, and you still deny me what you know is mine? I can help you with that, Love.” Artemis gave her a lustful glance. "Don't even think about it. If you kill your brother, how will you enjoy torturing your brother yourself?" She growled at him. "We keep you because you entertain us. You have been chained to that pole due to your own foolishness. Now you won't be able to escape your duty or your fate.”Artemis, the wonderful son of the Alpha who kidnapped her. What will you do when Rei hears I'm here, and you have gone against his wishes? He is the next Alpha to leads us, not you!” Briar screamed. "If Rei could only see how pathetic you have become in captivity, he'd spit on you as well." Artemis spat at her. "I may not. have known my Wolf long, but she is stronger than you think. Maybe I'm luring you into a false sense of security." Briar snapped back at him. "No matter, he will be too late to save you from my mark.”Artemis leveled his gaze on her, slowly walking in her direction. "What are you doing? If you do this, Rei will die! Your brother will be dead!" Briar yelled through her tears. "Everyone dies some time. Believe me, it's his time.”Artemis laughed a psychotic look in his eyes. Briar knew she was in trouble.

They called her "mad." The woman who once ruled Zhou's halls with laughter and grace now sat hollow in a white cell. Rose Sallow had lost everything. Her inheritance. Her child... her little boy, whose last breath faded against her trembling arms after the poison took hold. Her husband, Duke Sallow, once sworn to never leave her, now stood beside another. Lisa Zhou. Her cousin. Her sister in all but blood Now the new "Madam Sallow." She was carrying Duke’s child, the 'heir' he publicly acknowledged as his first child, and Rose's son’s name was erased from the family records. In the mental hospital room, she laughed when they handed her the divorce papers. That night, Rose decided to end it all. But fate, cruel, capricious fate, had other plans. When her eyes fluttered open, she didn’t find herself among the angels. She was staring at her reflection in a golden mirror, and on the bed behind her was her wedding gown. It was her wedding day. A chance to change it all. To rewrite fate. But as she rose from the bed, a shiver crawled down her spine. There, on the vanity, a note written in red... "Congrats... You have been granted a second chance." Then came the knock. Three slow, deliberate taps on the door. She froze. “Lady Rose?” a deep voice called. It wasn’t Duke’s voice. Softer, steadier, yet commanding. “Forgive the intrusion, but… I couldn’t wait any longer.” She opened the door. Standing there was a man she had never seen before. He bowed slightly, eyes dark as midnight. “Marry me,” he said simply. In her first life, this had never happened. No mysterious man. No interruption. No warning. Why now?

Aria's life was chillingly quiet until a True Mate came along in the form of Relaz. He was noisy, extremely talkative, and especially annoying. Once allowed, there was no end to his gabbling. But when Aria realizes that Relaz is more than he seems, much more than just a carefree, always smiling and talkative man, he is something much more ruthless, will their relationship be put in jeopardy or will they try to work together irrespective of their misunderstandings and solve a puzzle, when they realize that the people around them are planning their destruction? Teaser... " You aren't my Relaz. That's right. I should get lost? Then no problem. All this while, you've been seeing me as nothing more than baggage, an extra load, right?" "I-i" Relaz stuttered. But he still didn't end up saying anything nor did he turn to look back at her. Aria laughed mockingly, "You're right. I'm so stupid. How could I have blamed the mood goddess all this while when she had given me such a treasure like Relaz as my mate. Now that he is no longer here, nor can I see the ghost of him, I've realized, how much the moon goddess had loved me. But it's a pity, I'm so stupid. Stupid, stupid..." She raised her hands and started slapping her cheeks with each 'stupid' she said and backed away slowly with tears on her face, desperately hoping that she could see the trace of the mate who once held, and loved her like no other. It was a pity she left too early and didn't manage to capture the tear that had managed to escape his tightly closed eyes, nor did she see the cold expression he wore all along, cracking and revealing immense grief. For what is love? Pain. Sacrifice.

"Don't you for a second believe that we are ever letting you go, sweetheart". He muttered against her ear, his husky voice sending jolt through her body. His tongue suddenly flicked out to lick her ear lobe. She didn't even understand why was this happening to her. "You are stuck between us, Vanessa." another voice muttered out as he trailed his lips down her chest, his breath fanning against the skin between valley of her breasts. She whimpered feeling scared of them. "You are ours, love." the third voice made it's way to her ear. The last brother's lips teasing the nape of her neck and he suddenly bite the sensitive skin there making tears fell out of her doe eyes. "P-P-P-Please l-l-l-let me g-go." Vanessa pleaded to them making the trio smirked at her stuttering self. "Say this without stuttering and then we will consider your request." one of them said to her and the trio laughed at her aloud. *** Joaquin, Emiliano and Alejandro Fernandez are the triplet brothers. Their aura screams danger and power. They always have the upper hand and no one dares to cross them. They never had a mother figure in their life but a bastard father names Teal, who was killed at the name of peace treaty by Russian mafia boss Miakhail Igor Gorbachev years ago. Now they only had their sister with them but she was also taken away by Liam ovich Gorbachev and the Spanish trio brothers are furious would be an understatement. Vanessa Lynn Gorbachev, daughter of Rooh and Mikhail Igor Gorbachev and the only sister of Liam, is an innocent little girl. She was as innocuous as the child because she was never been out in the cruel world. She was homeschooled because of her stuttering problem.

He called me "little sister." I called him my forever.I've loved Skyler Voss since I was sixteen—my brother's best friend, my pack's most feared enforcer, and the man who looked right through me like I was invisible. For years, I watched him from the shadows, memorizing the way he laughed, the way he rode, the way he commanded every room he entered.Then came the night of my twenty-first birthday. The night the mate bond snapped into place.The night he looked at me with horror in his eyes and said the words that shattered me: "You're like a sister to me, Wren. You'll only ever be a sister."So I ran. I buried myself in my art, in a new city, in a life where Skyler Voss was nothing but a ghost I refused to let haunt me.Five years later, I'm not the same girl who cried herself to sleep over a man who didn't want her. I'm successful. I'm strong. I'm done.But when a family emergency drags me back to Ironvale, I discover that Skyler isn't done with me. The rejection that once broke me is now breaking him—slowly, painfully, driving him to the edge of madness. His wolf is feral. His control is slipping. And he's looking at me like I'm the only thing standing between him and the abyss.He wants a second chance. He wants forgiveness. He wants me.But I've spent five years learning to live without him. And I'm not sure I remember how to love someone who once made me feel so utterly worthless.

“Fuck,” he groaned, his body tightening as he released his load inside me, spurting, filling my cunt. I remained still, trembling from the aftershocks, he pulled away, leaving me cold and exposed. I watched as he stood, reaching for his clothes with a casual indifference that felt like a slap. “Where are you going?” “Don’t overthink it. It’s just sex, nothing more.” “But… you didn’t mark me.” “Mark you? Why would I do that?” “Dominic… we’re married,” I tried to remind him desperately. He laughed coldly, mocking. “Marriage is just a contract, Samantha. You’re nothing more than a Luna with no wolf, an obligation I’m bound to.” ~~~ Samantha married Alpha Dominic, the man she’d been hopelessly inlove with, but he couldn’t love her back. He was waiting for his fated mate, not knowing that it was her all along becasue the bond remained hidden, unable to reveal itself due to her wolfless state. And Samantha paid the price—suffering the pain of her husband’s affair with another woman. Broken and betrayed, she ran away from the Silver Crescent Pack, carrying a secret that would change everything: she was pregnant. Six years later, she’s returned, not as the fragile woman she once was but as a fierce mother and the powerful right-hand to Alpha Killian. Her secret? Two five-year-old twins—and a wolf that finally emerged the moment she gave birth. When she unexpectedly crosses paths with Dominic, the Alpha she once loved, her carefully built walls begin to crumble. He’s everything she remembers and more: handsome, dangerous, and shockingly more attractively than she ever thought, drawing her in an inexplicable pull. But Dominic was oblivious to the truth she’s been hiding—the secret of their children...

EXCERPT "Madeline, you are still pregnant, aren't you?" I stared at her, she was still—unresponsive. "Madeline, the baby is still in there, inside your god-damned womb, isn't he, my voice rising several decibels." Still, no response. "Madeline!!!," I growled. I demand an answer. You are still with my child, right?" This time, she looked up at me, fear flickering in her eyes, and I could see the defiance there too. She responded with a negative shake of her head. I just laughed, a cold humorless laughter. I was mad. "I-i am so sorry alpha Konan," she stammered, her voice nearly a whisper. "I didn't mean for this to happen." I scoffed. Did she just say sorry? "Madeline, O Madeline!!!" "Sorry doesn't bring back my baby. it doesn't make up for your incompetence." "You did too much wrong things at once Madeline. You breached the contract Madeline, you lost my baby and took the ability for me to sire a heir because of your carelessness.... **** Because of an unintended one night stand sex with Alpha Konan, the newly installed cruel alpha of Oceanwolf pack, Madeline a servant girl lost her virginity and got pregnant for his child. Alpha Konan got to know about it and since a pregnancy was needed to establish his power in the pack, he decided to contract her to be his mate, and she got no say in it. The pregnancy they both depended on was lost and everything took a turn for the worse. Will Madeline be able to survive the punishment meted out on her? In this story, a web of love, loyalty and adventure is formed. Will the poor servant girl and the cruel Alpha be able to pull through, each answering the call of eternal unbroken love amidst all difficulties?

They say darkness lives in us all... It's a lie, though. Because the darkness lives within me. Elara Temptation to sweet, lips too thick. When a handsome man invited me to a Halloween party,  I wasn't expecting to be drugged, abducted and offered as a human sacrifice for his dark cult, but I should've. Life had been miserable, and I'd never fitted in. So when death came for me, I welcomed it. Arms. Wide. Open. But Asher had other ideas. He stole me to kill me, but now? He keeps me just to play. His kisses left scars. His touches, fingerprints on my bones. But when he wakes the darkness in me, I realised he may just not like the monstrous little witch he created - Cross my heart. Asher. I had a job. Bring a woman to the circle just like my brothers had - kill the women presented, gain more power. It should've been easy. But then I saw her. My shadowed Vixen. Something whispered to me in the dark, a pulse in the air surrounding us. She felt different. She felt eerie and aloof, a mystery that lured me in. We had to know. I had to know. So I gave her a chance. Join us, or die. She laughed and told me she wasn't afraid of dying. So I made it my mission to drag her into my darkness, to toy with her until only a monster remained. And a monster was just what I got. Now, I'd do anything to get my girl back, even if it meant letting the darkness consume me, just so she could be bathed within the light - and hope to die.